By Fr George Adimike

It is self evident that Francis Arinze, bishop and cardinal of the Holy Mother Church, embodies the best of the gospel values.

Cardinal-Francis-Arinze

No pun is intended with the caption: ‘Good news according to Francis.’ It is but an iteration of the obvious and self evident truth. Right from childhood, when he accepted the good news of Jesus Christ, he graciously lives by the word and in the spirit.

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He accepted the Gospel of Christ with wholehearted obediential surrender such that trust in divine providence measures his life. Having drunk from the fountain of grace and the eternal well of life, he iconizes the faith; indeed, his life translates the best of the Christian faith.

Primacy of God in all things is the simple parsing of Cardinal Arinze’s life. Arinze is theophoric, he is virtually transparent of Christian virtues and hopes. Living within and beyond time, this humble servant of God dwells in the consciousness that eternity awaits. On that account, his life runs on grace and thus generates a happy and glorious preface to Christianity in Nigeria in more ways than one. Encounter him and you behold a true man of God. His life is a sign of contradiction illuminating the path of people of our age across mountains and fountains. His life runs on virtues that he is ever ready to bear with patience, equanimity and humility misunderstanding, false blames, antipathies and misdeeds, without prejudice to his high disciplinary disposition.

Primacy of God and self-abandonment in His providence constitutes the subjective motor that drives his life. Cardinal Arinze’s life in its simplicity maintains an indescribable peace of mind and doxological reach in order to capture the joy so eternal and real. He is in a constant stretch to capture the love eternal.

A holy and peace-filled Prince of the Church, very intelligent and witty, his life is as inspiring as it is coming. He is a life & family-defending and social justice-affirming leader as a result of his faith, and as an expression of his love for Christ.

His filial trust in God funds his free surrender of his intellective and volitional faculties to divine Providence. Thus, he approaches politics, power, money and women with spartan discipline, legendary detatchment, unimaginable prudence and absolute submission to divine providence. Some of his most recent works say it all: Radical Discipleship, God is Providence, The Holy Eucharist, Encountering Christ and Following Him, Marian Veneration: Firm Foundations, Divine Providence: God’s Design in Your Life, God’s Invisible Hand, et al. His life is a sufficient warrant to appreciate the good news. It inspires because it is good news. It is as self evident and simple as that.

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Consecrated a bishop at the age of 32, he displayed an uncommon pastoral leadership and sanctity of life that saw him through the Nigerian-Biafran war years being at the heart of the theatre of war. He was able to reconstruct the human persons, the pastoral and administrative structures in order to sustain faith and hope.

He accompanied the people through those difficult years providing for their spiritual, psychological and material needs. In and through his episcopacy in Onitsha, especially during those difficult war and post-war times, it was clear that faith faiths hope. He was both a container and a conduit of grace, and his Episcopal ministry was a solid event of faith, a transmitter of love, so that, on account of the hope-borne actions of the time, both the faith and the people survived. Beyond survival, both triumph and thrive to the glory of God. And Arinze is good news!

These sterling qualities did not escape the Holy Father, Pope Saint John Paul 11, who invited him to serve the universal Church in Rome in 1984. From then, this good news to the Church in Nigeria has become good news for both the universal Church and for the entire black race.

Living in Europe these couple of years have given me a firsthand understanding of how goodness of one person can become corporate gain of a people.

The corporate nature of effects of goodness is apodictic in His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Arinze. Encounters are easy with people of Ameri-Eurasia; one experiences a welcome, an acceptance and a smile of goodwill immediately one associates himself either by nationality or faith to Cardinal Arinze. One immediately shares in the merits of Arinze’s goodness.

Verily, that’s a corporate benefit of original goodness. Cardinal Arinze is one of the best image-maker for Nigeria. He is in the same league with the Nigerian Football team. Their near competitors are the Nollywood and Music industry. However, they prove to be mixed grills of good, bad and ugly. Certainly, Cardinal Arinze is one of the best living individual marketers of Nigeria for being a Nigerian. Hence, Arinze is goodnews for Nigeria.

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On the 23rd November, when he celebrated his 60th Priestly Anniversary in Velletri, a suburb of Rome, he celebrated his 24,400th Holy Mass as a Priest. He is that meticulous and organized. He records each Mass on a page and has never missed celebrating Mass in the last 60 years. You can predict almost accurately what Cardinal Arinze is doing by the time you are reading this piece. For example at 3pm, he is in the chapel praying, by 6.30pm he is praying, at 2pm he is resting.

His life verifies and vindicates the possibility of a Christian life in our post-Christian, post-modern world. It attracts a lot of goodwill for us, his country men and women, and all who are associated with him by faith, humanity or culture. His life is good news to the poor, to the confused, to the rejected, to the disturbed, to the faithful and to people of goodwill. His life is good news and as he celebrates his 60th anniversary as a priest we celebrate the gift and the goodness that is Francis Cardinal Arinze. Indeed, we celebrate the ‘good news’ according to Francis!